Elsewhere in Africa, notably Botswana The Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" (singular: Motswana). Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It has held free and fair democratic elections, Zambia The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the, Malawi The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an, Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three official languages: English, Shona (a Bantu language), and Ndebele (also a, Lesotho Lesotho (pronounced /lɨˈsuːtuː/ , lih-SOO-too), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave—entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is the southernmost and Swaziland The Kingdom of Swaziland , sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique. The nation, as well as its people, are named after the 19th century king Mswati II. Emigrant and expatriate communities worldwide, notably Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three, Australia For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of the roughly 250 language groups. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the immediate north and discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Britain in 177, the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land, the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also, Argentina The Argentine claims in Antarctica along with the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands (administered by the United Kingdom) shown in light green, Brazil Brazil (pronounced /brəˈzɪl/ ; Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population. It is the only Portuguese-speaking, the Netherlands The Netherlands (pronounced /ˈnɛðɚləndz/ ; Dutch: Nederland, pronounced [ˈneːdərlɑnt] ( listen)) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in North-West Europe. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany and Belgium Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ , BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it.
- Germanic The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a
- West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish. The other two of these three traditional branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish. The other two of these three traditional branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages, mainly spoken in South Africa Coordinates: 29°02′46″S 25°03′47″E / 29.046°S 25.063°E The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a 2,798 kilometres coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent and Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990 following the Namibian War of Independence. Its. It is a daughter language of Dutch Dutch ( Nederlands ) is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language and over 5 million people as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other, originating in its seventeenth century The 17th century was the century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian calendar dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch.[n 2] Although Afrikaans borrowed from languages such as Malay Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family and the official language of Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, where in the latter it is standardized as Indonesian. It is one of four official languages of Singapore, and as Indonesian is a working language of East Timor, a consequence of over twenty years of Indonesian administration. It is, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that grew from the Latin descended Galician-Portuguese language that was spoken in the mediaeval Kingdom of Galicia, whose territory is now divided between northern Portugal, Galicia and Asturias. It also absorbed influences from the Romance and Arabic languages spoken in the, the Bantu languages The Bantu languages constitute a sub-branch of the Niger-Congo languages. By one estimate, there are 522 languages in the Bantu family, 668 languages in the Southern Bantoid branch which includes Bantu, and 1,532 in Niger-Congo. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of Cameroon; i.e., in the regions commonly or the Khoisan languages The Khoisan languages are the click languages of Africa, which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion. In southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi and, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin.[n 3] Therefore, differences with Dutch often lie in a more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling of Afrikaans.[n 4] There is a degree of mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as one criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also between the two languages—especially in written form—although it is easier for Dutch-speakers to understand Afrikaans than the other way around.[n 5]
With about 6 million native speakers in South Africa, or 13.3 percent of the population, it is the third most spoken mother tongue in the country.[1][2] It has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all official languages South Africa has 11 official languages. They are Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, Tswana, English, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda and Southern Ndebele. Less than one percent of South African speak any other language as their home language. Most South Africans can speak more than one language. Prior to 1994, South Africa had only two, and is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language.[n 6] It is the majority language of the western half of South Africa—the provinces of the Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated of the provinces of South Africa, created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, which is part of a trans-frontier park with Botswana. It also includes the Augrabies Falls and the diamond mining regions in and Western Cape The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province. Prior to the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, it was called the Cape Colony (see the History of Cape Colony)—and the primary language of the coloured In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers or referred to an ethnic group of mixed-race people who possess some sub-Saharan African ancestry, but not enough to be considered Black under the law of South Africa. They are mixed race and often possess substantial ancestry from Europe, Indonesia, and white communities.[n 7] In neighbouring Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990 following the Namibian War of Independence. Its, Afrikaans is spoken in 11 percent of households, mainly concentrated in the capital Windhoek Windhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529. A population influx from all over Namibia has caused researchers to estimate the figure to be well and the southern regions of Hardap Hardap stretches the entire width of Namibia, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Namibia's eastern national border. In the northeast, it borders the Kgalagadi District of Botswana, and in the southeast, it borders the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Domestically, it borders the following regions: and Karas The Karas Region is the southernmost region of Namibia. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas Mountain Range in the southern part of the region. The Karas region is considered as a natural organic administrative and economic unit and includes the magisterial districts of Keetmanshoop, Karasburg, Bethanie and Lü.[n 8] Widely spoken as a second language, it is a lingua franca A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues of Namibia.[n 9]
While the number of total speakers of Afrikaans is unknown, estimates range between 15 and 23 million.[n 1]
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Vowel sounds[3]
Orthography
There are many parallels to the Dutch orthography conventions and those used for Afrikaans. There are 26 letters.
In Afrikaans, many consonants are dropped from the earlier Dutch spelling. For example, slechts ('only') in Dutch becomes slegs in Afrikaans. Part of this is because the spelling of Afrikaans words is considerably more phonemic than that of Dutch. For example, Afrikaans and some Dutch dialects make no distinction between /s/ and /z/, having merged the latter into the former; while the word for "south" is written ‹zuid› in Dutch, it is spelled ‹suid› in Afrikaans to represent this merger. Similarly, the Dutch digraph‹ij› is written as ‹y›, except where it replaces the Dutch suffix –lijk, as in waarschijnlijk > waarskynlik.
Another difference is the indefinite article, 'n in Afrikaans and een in Dutch. 'A book' is 'n boek in Afrikaans, whereas it is either een boek or 'n boek in Dutch. This 'n is usually pronounced as just a weak vowel, [ə].
The diminutive suffix in Afrikaans is ‹-jie›, whereas in Dutch it is ‹-je›, hence "a little bit" is bietjie in Afrikaans and beetje in Dutch.
The letters ‹c›, ‹q›, ‹x›, and ‹z› occur almost exclusively in borrowings from French, English, Greek and Latin. This is usually because words that had ‹c› and ‹ch› in the original Dutch are spelled with ‹k› and ‹g›, respectively, in Afrikaans. Similarly original ‹qu› and ‹x› are spelt ‹kw› and ‹ks› respectively. For example ‹ekwatoriaal› instead of ‹equatoriaal›, and ‹ekskuus› instead of ‹excuus›.
The vowels with diacritics in non-loanword Afrikaans are: ‹á, é, è, ê, ë, í, î, ï, ó, ô, ú, û, ý›. Diacritics are ignored when alphabetising, though they are still important, even when typing the diacritic forms may be difficult.
Initial apostrophes
A few short words in Afrikaans take initial apostrophes. In modern Afrikaans, these words are always written in lower case (except if the entire line is uppercase), and if they occur at the beginning of a sentence, the next word is capitalised. Three examples of such apostrophed words are 'k, 't, 'n. The last (the indefinite article) is the only apostrophed word that is common in written Afrikaans, since the other examples are shortened versions of other words (ek and het respectively).[4]
Here are a few examples:
| Apostrophed Version | Usual Version | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 'n Man loop daar | (none) | A man walks there | |
| 'k 't Dit gesê | Ek het dit gesê | I said it | Extremely uncommon |
| 't Jy dit geëet? | Het jy dit geëet? | Did you eat it? | Extremely uncommon |
The apostrophe and the following letter are regarded as two separate characters, and are never written using a single glyph, although a single character variant of the indefinite article appears in Unicode, ʼn.
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Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:27:05 GMT+00:00
NewsTime We are noticing that a lot more Afrikaans items are appearing on You Tube at present. More so when regard is had to the music industry. ...
Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:32:34 PST
Tiffany, a South African immigrant, talks about her first experiences in the United States and speaks a bit of her native language.. youtube.com.
